Here are the photos for the submarine set! I'm going to milk these purchases for three separate posts.
The Junior line has redesigned the faces of the little octopuses from the 1.2.3 sets, and they've very quickly grown on me. I'm not against Playmobil toying around with different face styles, and it's especially fine to try out on the animals. The retired submarine captain enjoys the freedom to dress casually on his prized vessel, and commissioned a shirt to be made with his own sub on it.
The sub opens up so you can place the characters inside! This is a nice aqua set where the main toy actually accounts for the little sea creature that's usually included. You can leave the top off if you like and just have the sub be a motor boat. It's like a two in one toy!
The little octopus is scared to dive too deep, so it hitches a ride in the submarine and peeks out the window.
The piece that holds the Tinti tablet attaches to the bottom, and stays below the water while the sub floats up top. Holes in the piece allow the tablet to break off into the tub and change the colour of the water.
The propeller on the back of the sub can spin, though there's no motor or anything fancy. Just spin it for something to do.
I'm sorry the lighting is so bad, but there are no windows in my bathroom. It's a little hard to tell just how blue the water is due to the Tinti tablet, but it's VERY blue. I picked the blue tablet for the submarine as it looked like the kind of deep water a submarine would be needed for. This image is supposed to look like the kind of area where a submarine would leave the bigger vessel. I can't claim to know exactly what it looks like outside of movies.
The submarine departs for the mighty deep, descending to where man on his own would surely meet his watery grave. To be swallowed up by Poseiden is a fear all men of the sea must learn to overcome, or accept as an inevitable fate.*To continue reading this story, please subscribe to...*It's worth noting that when the submarine is underwater, it will fill up with water and not float correctly when it comes back up. You gotta love toy logic sometimes.
In the end I think the submarine itself is great, but the Tinti interaction isn't too special. While the deep blue does look good for underwater adventures, the other colours are kind of strange for a submarine. The tablets come in blue, purple and green, and I don't think the sub spewing purple oil or green chemical waste is very kid friendly. (It also doesn't make you feel very clean) The other two sets look a lot more promising with the Tinti interaction though, so I'll get those up when I can.
I should also note that as an adult, I'm a little suspicious of the Tinti tablets. I certainly don't want to get the coloured water in my mouth or eyes, and I'm just glad I didn't have some kind of allergic reaction to them. (Which only occurred to me after I had finished my bath)
